Best use of video – corporate 2016

The negative attitude of employers has been identified as the biggest barrier to recruiting and retaining disabled people. The Disability Confident campaign created by the Department for Work & Pensions is designed to demonstrate to potential employers the skills and talents that disabled people can bring to the workforce. It aims to significantly reduce the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people, a gap which the Government wants to halve.

On the second anniversary of the Disability Confident campaign, a new LinkedIn Showcase Page was created. It featured news articles and advice in an attempt to reach a wider audience, and encourage more small and medium-sized firms to get involved and find potential employees they could not do without.

Video was seen as the best way to inspire employers and demonstrate the practical benefits of employing disabled people. It was also viewed as accessible. Two videos were created. The first, a short motion graphic, highlighted some statistics, such as 100 people begin losing their sight every day, how ten million people are affected by hearing loss across the UK and more than half of all companies are ‘missing out’ because they do not employ disabled people. The second video focused on Cornish café owner Sarah and her employee Andy, who feared he would never find a job again after being left with speech and sight issues following two strokes and a cardiac arrest. She explains how Andy, who was keen to work, has benefited the business by being punctual and never taking sick days while ‘customers love him’.

Both videos, which were produced in-house, proved successful. The motion graphic piece had an average view duration of 70 per cent, against a YouTube benchmark of 60 to 70 per cent, and a LinkedIn engagement rate of 2.05 per cent, against a Government benchmark of 0.75 per cent. The case study had an average view duration of 61 per cent, and a LinkedIn engagement rate of 2.6 per cent.

The Department for Work & Pensions set a target of ten new Disability Confident partners within the week-long campaign. It achieved 19. The judges were impressed by the results, adding that the videos ‘were compelling’ and made good use of the case study. ‘This was an important issue and the films were highly engaging,’ they said.